Effects of Structured Exercise Program in Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction

Background: The vestibular rehabilitation is an exercise-based method, aiming to maximize central nervous system(CNS) compensation at vestibular nuclear and other CNS levels for vestibular pathology. A minimal number of studies have documented the impact of Vestibular rehabilitation on the recovery rate of patients with Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction(BVH). Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of structured vestibular rehabilitation (VR) programs on severity of dizziness, kinesiophobia, balance, fatigue, quality of sleep, activities of daily living( ADL) and quality of life(QoL) in subjects with chronic BVH. Method: Twenty-five participants diagnosed with BVH were included in the study. A structured VR program was applied in 50-minute sessions once a week and as a home exercise program 3 days a week over 8 weeks. Participants were evaluated for severity of dizziness with the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), for kinesiophobia with the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK), for balance with the Semitandem, tandem, and standing tests, for quality of sleep with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), for ADL with the Vestibular Disorders Activities of Daily Life (VADL), for QoL with Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and for fatigue with the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) at the baseline (T0), at 4th week (T1), 8th week (T2), and 20th week (T3) after study started.